10046 trace - Pointless or Powerful in the real world?

How far should a professional DBA pursue the exact block-dump, byte-level, trace-detail root cause of issues? They are paid to keep the databases running, backed up and performing within SLAs, providing the business with the service they need. Time spent playing with 10046 traces is time that could be spent elsewhere. However, how can a jobbing DBA expect to be able to provide a reliable service if they do not understand the true reason why a problem occurred and be certain it will not re-occur? Time taken in examining 10053 traces of the execution plans chosen and identifying what went wrong is time well spent.

Neil and Martin will take opposing stances on this topic, each knowing they are right.